Lingering
by Valentina-Lestrange
Summary: Looking at Andromeda's empty room, Narcissa can't help but feel like a lost child.


**Lingering**

**by Valentina-Lestrange**

_I'm so tired of being here,_

_Suppressed by all my,_

_Childish fears,_

_And if you have to leave,_

_I wish that you would just leave,_

_'Cause your presence still lingers here,_

_And it won't leave me alone,_

'My Immortal' - Evanescence

**Sunday August 29th 1971**

Looking at Andromeda's empty room, Narcissa can't help but feel like a lost child. The room is not large, but as she walks though it, she can't shake the feeling that this isn't her sisters room. This isn't the room where she'd find Andromeda sitting in a corner, her nose buried in a book. This isn't where she and Andromeda would hide when playing with their sister and cousins.

She runs her fingers along the wallpaper, walking slowly from one end of the room to the other. She can't help but feel that Andromeda is right behind her, giggling as they run away and hide from their stroppy elder sister.

Something brushes against Narcissa's ear and she spins around, clutching it as if she has been stung viciously by a wasp. It is just a lock of blonde hair that has come loose from the ponytail she has tied it up in. But she is sure it had been Andromeda chuckling in her ear. "Leave me alone Andromeda," she hisses, backing into a corner, "You're not dead, so leave me alone!"

But she's not talking to her sister, she's just talking to the air in front of her.

"I'm not a child," she whispers under her breath, closing her eyes, trying to permanently fix the thought in her mind as she feels tears brimming in her eyes, "I'm not a child," But she can't suppress the urge to pull her hair out of the ponytail, just for comfort. It tumbles down to her shoulders and she runs her fingers through it vainly, searching for non-existent knots.

"It looks fine Cissy," says Andromeda's voice and Narcissa jumps. She looks up like a deer caught in headlights, searching wildly for the source of the noise. But it's not Andromeda and it's not Bellatrix playing a cruel trick on her. It's just her imagination, wishing her sister back into their family.

She sinks to the ground and lands on the wooden floor with a small bump. She looks at her nails thoughtfully for a moment and then notices something on the floor. It is a thick piece of red ribbon, that Andromeda used to plait in Narcissa's hair when they were younger. Narcissa picks it up, and looks at it as she holds it in-between her slim fingers. It has frayed at the end, and there are a couple of holes in the middle and one near the end. It reminds her of her family, for some inexplicable reason. The holes were a sign that... there's something missing. She thinks for a second. Three of them, three of five children. Well, three sisters and two cousins. Bellatrix, Andromeda, Narcissa, Sirius and Regulus. What could possibly happen to three of them? Narcissa feels her heart sink. Maybe it means that all of this would end soon. The war, the fighting, the pain, but maybe it wouldn't end smoothly. Maybe not all of them make it.

Narcissa shakes her head. No she refuses to think like that. They will all make it though this, she is sure of it. One day, she and Regulus and Bellatrix and Andromeda and Sirius would meet again, and that would be the end of all the troubles. Narcissa was sure of it.

Narcissa suddenly feels stupid, as she looks at the ribbon again. What would a silly little piece of ribbon know about the future? She missed Andromeda, and it was making her too emotional. Narcissa considers throwing the ribbon away, but pauses, then pockets it, "Oh shut up," she whispers, as she hears Andromeda laughing about her trying to tell the future with a piece of ribbon.

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**Author's Notes: This is.... not at all how I expected it to be... O_o How strange. I tried a new writing style. I don't know why, I just seemed to fit the story y'know?**

**Poor Cissy doesn't realise that she came very close to accurately predicting the future, bless her.**

**I seem to be in a Fanfiction mood today, so yeah, another update for you =) Reviews would be lovely ;D

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**EDIT: I changed it a tiny bit because someone told me that Reg and Siri aren't her brothers. I know Bella, Drommie and Cissy aren't Sirius' and Reggie's sisters, but I always imagine the children to be quite close, which is why I think Bella and Cissy feel betrayed after Sirius leaves, even though he wasn't their Brother.**


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